Nest Cam Recording Options: Nest Aware and Camio

Nest Cam Recording Options: Nest Aware and Camio

By Rose Thibodeaux - 09/09/2016

Storing events from your Nest Cam can be done through different platforms. One of those platforms is Camio, which I started using because of their free cloud storage for Dropcam. Camio has since dropped the free storage option, and they now charge $9.90 per camera per month. As they offer so much, I’ve been a paying customer for months, but things are changing. Here is a look at how Camio stacks up against Nest’s own Nest Aware.

What is Camio?

Camio is an app that allows you to use your existing hardware as a video surveillance solution. You can record with your iPhone, iPad, Android phone/tablet, computer, IP Camera (more on that here), CudaCam, Nest Cam, or Dropcam. You can view the recorded footage or live footage from your iPhone, iPad, Android phone/tablet, or your computer.

When recording, the video streams to the cloud for storage. What is included depends on the device you use. The software functions differently when combined with Nest Cam or Dropcam than it would with other devices. When recording through a Nest Cam, you must use one of the paid plans. The entry-level plan is called Plus. It is $9.90 per month per camera and includes 30 days of video history, Camio Daily, and Search and Alerts. You can view the stored video at any time. If you need more storage, Pro is $19.90 per month per camera and offers 90-day video history as well as advanced video analytics and priority support.

What is Nest Aware?

Nest Aware is Nest’s subscription service. It adds both a layer of intelligence and cloud storage to your Nest cameras. There isn’t a separate app to access the service; instead, you use the Nest app, which conveniently controls your Nest Thermostat, Nest Protect, Nest Cam, and Dropcam.

Your Nest Cam purchase includes a free trial of the service, but after the trial expires, you must pay. The entry-level plan is $10 per month and includes 10 days of video history. Interestingly enough, Camio never charged me tax on their service, Nest does, making the price a little more than $10/month. Nest Aware’s plans include video storage, video history access, activity zones, smarter alerts (thanks to advanced algorithms), sightline, person alerts, and a timelapse feature.

Finding Events Using Camio is Tough

Not too long ago, I wrote a review of Camio, praising its ability. Fickle as it may seem, I’ve changed my mind.

Excited about Camio’s features, I found myself bragging at a Super Bowl Party. I told my neighbors all about my nifty porch camera that could filter cars from people and filter purple packages from white ones. It wasn’t but one month later that a neighbor asked me to put this technology to use. She gave me a timeframe and asked if I could filter the footage for a black car, exactly what I told her Camio could do. But what I found is that putting the feature into practice is challenging, and the frame-by-frame footage quality is borderline useless.

Besides the fact that using the search feature is difficult, there is another downside. Camio breaks down Nest footage into frame-by-frame action. So instead of one video, you have multiple pictures that are sewn together, flipbook style. While I was aware of this before, it was only when I put Camio to use that I realized how inconvenient this is. The week after my failed attempt to filter the footage, I caught a shadow of someone walking down the sidewalk. I wanted to see who it was. But while Camio was recording, it completely missed the person walking down the street. I realized that if someone moves fast enough, they can actually evade being recorded because Camio’s footage isn’t capturing a live stream. No bueno.

After my embarrassing black car fail and Camio’s inability to capture the sidewalk creeper, I decided it was time to brush off Nest Aware and to run both software solutions side-by-side.

Camio vs. Nest Aware for Nest Cam Storage

While the two services may sound the same on paper, there are subtle differences that are hard to detect unless using the two side-by-side.

Can download clips to your photo gallery from the app and can download from web portal.

Can download videos from the web portal only.

Record Sound:

Yes, and also includes intelligent sound recognition.

Getting Started

Getting started is easier with Nest Aware than it is with Camio, but Camio isn’t difficult. To sign up for Nest Aware, simply access your Nest account, head to the settings menu, click Nest Aware, and add/manage your subscriptions.

Camio setup is done through their website, and it takes about 2 minutes. The app should be installed on the devices you want to use. Then you can either sign up using Facebook, Google, or email. All you have to do is sign into your account and select which device you want to use as your camera and which you want to use as your viewer.

How They Detect Motion

One way Camio and Nest Aware differ is in the way they detect motion.

With Camio, the software has the potential to be mind-blowing. It doesn’t use traditional motion detection, which makes false alarms virtually non-existent. Camio actually records every movement that it notices. But over time, it learns – with help from you. You teach it which events to record by giving clips a thumbs up or a thumbs down. It learns quickly and then it categorizes the clips. While it records everything regardless of what you’ve deemed important, it puts non-important events into the “all” category and important events into the “top” category. You only get alerts for the important events, but you don’t have to miss out on anything.

The problem with Camio’s solution is that searching through all the footage is terribly cumbersome. Camio uses a feature called Smart Search. In theory, all you need to do is type in keywords or pick a date and Camio should retrieve all recordings related to your query. For example, you can search for footage of people, cars, colors, etc. You can also set smart zones and search for activity within zones. While this is all great in theory, in practice, it doesn’t work well. Scrolling through the footage is difficult and disorganized. You may start by looking at footage from Friday, but make one wrong click and you’re actually looking at footage from Wednesday. To make matters worse, Camio doesn’t record streaming video; it records clips; short clips. When sorting through footage, keep in mind that you have to sort through an entire day’s worth of footage broken down into 15-30 second videos. It’s time-consuming and confusing.

With Nest Aware, you can also record continuously, but searching footage is a lot easier thanks to activity zones. With activity zones, you are only capturing footage of events that occur in important areas, and can easily organize events. For example, I have one zone for my porch, one for the street, and one for the sidewalk – everything else (the sky, other people’s homes) is ignored. If I want to find footage of a black car, I can search footage from the street zone. Instead of suffering through the process of sorting hundreds of 15-second clips, I can easily select a date, a zone, and review my timeline. The timeline will show color coded dots that correspond to activity in my selected zone.

From the timeline, I can hover my mouse over the colored dots to view a preview of the activity and quickly decide if the footage is relevant (black car) or not. Better yet, I can quickly swipe through days’ worth of footage using either the mobile app or web portal.

The app uses a feature called Sightline. Using Sightline is similar to using the timeline shown above. With the feature, you can view events directly from the mobile app. You can see when the event started, ended, and even preview a snapshot of the event so you know if it was relevant or not.

CAMIO MOTION DETECTION PROS: Records everything, but only notifies you of important events.

CAMIO MOTION DETECTION CONS: Difficult to filter footage, even using Smart Search. Has activity zones, but they are inaccurate. Records clips instead of videos.

Notifications and False Alarms

Both Nest Aware and Camio are capable of sending alerts to your smartphone via a push notification when activity is detected. During testing, I found that occasionally one would miss an event that the other would catch, but I wouldn’t say one is more reliable than the other. If I had to choose, I would say Camio may be slightly more reliable in terms of sending relevant alerts.

In regards to false alarms, I have false alarms with both Nest Aware and Camio. What’s annoying about false alarms with Nest Aware is that you can’t provide feedback when they happen. And they do happen. A flash of light from a moving vehicle is usually enough to trick Nest Aware. However, Nest Aware has recently launched a person detection feature. I haven’t had sufficient time to test to see if this will reduce false alarms, but so far, it seems like alerts are becoming more intelligent. Camio is occasionally tricked by moving lights too, but it’s comforting that you can give feedback and (most of the time) issues improve after doing so.

NEST AWARE FALSE ALARM CONS: The system isn’t a learning device and occasionally something like a moving light will throw the camera off.

CAMIO FALSE ALARM PROS: You can provide feedback by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to Camio alerts. It’s also easier to retrain Camio if you physically move the camera. If you move the camera with Nest Aware, even slightly, you may have to reset your activity zones.

CAMIO FALSE ALARM CONS: None.

In the end, what I originally loved about Camio is still true. It provides more storage for the same price as Nest Aware. It also includes the smart search feature and cuts down on false alarms with integrated intelligence. However, the reason I have a porch camera is to do my part in keeping my neighborhood safe. With this as my goal, Nest Aware is a better option.

It’s also important to note that video surveillance is often about capturing evidence of a crime and not necessarily about stopping a crime. With this in mind, Nest Aware’s better resolution, though slight, is important. Also, I can get actual videos of events, which I prefer over photographs. Finally, the process of sifting through footage is faster, more accurate, and more efficient with Nest Aware. Though I’m sad to be canceling my Camio subscription, I think Nest Aware is my best bet for keeping my neighborhood safe.

9/9/2016 with Sightline, Person Detection
3/4/2017 If you read about Camio Box or Box VMs online, please note that these options are not compatible with Nest, only Camio cloud software, as described above, works with Nest. Camio supports all cameras that expose an RTSP stream. Unfortunately, Nest does not.

8 Responses to "Nest Cam Recording Options: Nest Aware and Camio"

07/19/2017

Pat

The Nest Cam Scam. I also like to call it “Mac Syndrome”. It’s decent quality but it quickly becomes a huge monthly financial burden, especially if you start buying more of them. I call it “Mac Syndrome” because they are trying to hold you captive to a money pit called subscription based membership (scam). They rope you in because everything they do is locked down and proprietary. I would never buy another Nest Cam…EVER.

They should drop the 3 hour limit. Change it to 24 Hours incl. Saving these alerts / clips during this 24 hours or just the 24 hours.
If so, I would by it directly. Now I’m in doubt. just because of the very costly MRC. I Think they would sell at least twice as much…

Nestcam has a few major problems. Not only it is expensive in hardware, it is locked in with its own cloud service, which costs $10/month for 10-day retention and $30/month for 30-day retention. The camera is an indoor camera. If it is for security surveillance, most other IP cameras can also meet your requirements.

The real problem is Nestcam cannot work without Internet connection. It does not support standard IP camera protocols such as ONVIF, RTSP or FTP. It does not work with any local storage such as SD Card or NAS server, and it does not work with any professional IP camera management software such as Blue Iris and CameraFTP VSS. Their cloud recording option is not only expensive, but also limited to only 10-day and 30-day retention.

CameraFTP’s cloud surveillance and recording service is much broader and flexible. We work with almost all IP cameras, and you can use webcam or any mobile device as an IP camera. Our service plan is extremely flexible starting from only $1.50/month.

I have 18 Nest & Dropcam cameras. I only really need the 10 day plan. I subscribed to Aware and added cameras as needed one or two at a time over the past year, so it got cheaper and cheaper for the Aware. Now, my annual subscription expires and they want a Fortune to continue. There is no discount for having 18 (I’d buy more but for the Aware cloud feature cost.) Do you have, or know of a reasonable service.? I have a ton of cloud space available but do not know how to use it with the Nest cameras. Any suggestions???

There isn’t a way that I know of. Even when Nest allows other companies to “Work with Nest”, Nest implements restrictions regarding cloud service. Nest clearly wants to protect their Nest Aware income, and I don’t see them giving that up anytime soon by allowing someone else to provide cloud services for less.

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